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Team Nutrition Demonstration Project
1999-2002
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Purpose
of the Project
The goal of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's (USDA) was to document the process (steps, time, and
resources) for fully implementing the Team Nutrition (TN) by communicating
the four TN messages to students using the classroom and cafeteria as
delivery channels, as well as other places in their environment such as
the school, home, community and local media. This comprehensive approach
to nutrition education resulted from findings of the TN Pilot
Implementation Project in which behavior change of students was more
likely when messages were provided by multiple persons in a variety of
places (communication channels).
Given the promising results of the Pilot Project, FNS initiated the
Team Nutrition Demonstration Project (TNDP). The major objectives of the
project were to systematically document the implementation process and to
more fully develop models of comprehensive and firmly established Team
Nutrition Initiatives that are appealing and helpful to States across the
country. Comprehensive Models include commitment to implementing a minimum
set of core activities that provide the Team Nutrition messages through
six communication channels. These channels include classroom, cafeteria,
school-wide, home, community, and media. Sixty-one schools in four States
(Idaho, Iowa, Kansas and Michigan) participated in this three-year
Demonstration Project by documenting the steps, time, and resources needed
to accomplish this comprehensive approach to TN programming.
In addition to this final report, key findings were also included in a
TN Technical Assistance/Implementation Guide ("Getting it Started,
Keeping it Going: A Guide for Team Nutrition Leaders"). The
Implementation Guide is intended to save time and effort for TN School
Leaders in their challenge to build, improve and sustain TN activities
that make a difference in the eating behavior and school environment of
children.
Project
Administration
A Request for Application (RFA) for Team Nutrition Demonstration
Project Grants (TNDP) was distributed in 1999 to all State agencies that
administered the National School Lunch (NSLP) and the School Breakfast
Program (SBP). The TNDP, a USDA FNS/State Agency Cooperative Agreement,
was awarded to four States: Idaho (lead State), Iowa, Kansas, and
Michigan, through a competitive award process. Grant activities began in
October 1999. Each State agency designated a Project Director (PD) to
coordinate the implementation of required grant activities in
participating schools and a Social Scientist (SS) to provide leadership
for implementation assessment, data collection and analysis, and
dissemination of findings through development of this final report and
appendices. Additionally, the PD from the lead State, Idaho, was
designated as Principal Investigator.
During the first year (1999-2000) of the three-year grant, State agency
staff focused on meeting with project staff from the other grantee States
and USDA FNS, recruiting and selecting schools to participate, training
school site coordinators and school-based teams, and developing logs/forms
to collect data needed to achieve grant project goals. The implementation
phase began at the start of the 2000-2001 School Year and ended with the
completion of the 2001-2002 School Year. FNS extended the State grants
until February 28, 2003, to allow time to synthesize data and develop a
draft of the final report.
Schools that participated in the Demonstration Project during the
two-year implementation phase had these responsibilities:
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Selection of a site coordinator;
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Formation of a school-based team;
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Development of a project plan and budget for both implementation
years;
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Participation in training provided by the Project Director and
Social Scientist in respective States;
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Conducting TN activities in all six-communication channels
(classroom, cafeteria, school-wide, home, community, and media);
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Use and review of the draft TN Technical Assistance/Implementation
Guide and post-project suggestions for the final TN Guidance
appropriate for other States;
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Documentation of steps followed, time spent, and resources used to
promote TN messages using all six-communication channels;
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Testing and feedback on a TN Routine Reporting System;
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Participation in an end-of-the-project qualitative interview or
survey to provide feedback about the challenges, solution, and keys to
success related to comprehensive implementation of TN at the school
level.
Methodology
A total of 61 schools were selected by project staff in the four States
to participate in comprehensive implementation of TN during a two-year
time period (2000-2002). There were 60 schools in Year 1. In Year 2, one
school in Michigan left the TNDP and two additional schools from Idaho
joined the TNDP for a total of 61 schools. A site coordinator provided
leadership for the project at the school/district level. Coordinators were
trained by State-level project staff in each State and were provided TN
lesson materials (age or grade specific, classroom modules), technical
assistance, and funding to cover costs for supplies and services to
implement activities in classrooms and the other five communication
channels.
Teachers provided TN lessons to 11,374 students in Year 1 and 11,339
students in Year 2 using the four TN lesson modules/kits. In addition to
the classroom lessons, students were involved in promotions/events in the
cafeteria, participated in activities involving their parents (at home
and/or school), and attended TN events that were available to the entire
student body as well as the community. Schools were required to link with
the media to promote or provide coverage for the nutrition and physical
activities conducted in school, at home or in the community. Classroom
teachers completed logs for each lesson taught to document steps involved,
time spent, and resources used-including cost of purchased and donated
items. Coordinators of cafeteria, school-wide, home/parent, community, and
media events also completed similar logs for each event.
Key
Findings - Classroom Activities
Steps. Classroom teachers took
primary responsibility for offering the TN lessons to the 11,000+ students
from Pre Kindergarten through eighth grade in the four participating
States. They were assisted by school foodservice staff, teaching
assistants and parents. Just over half of approximately 21,000 students in
participating schools received TN lessons within their classrooms; but all
enrolled students in the schools had the opportunity to gain exposure to
activities in the non-classroom channels (cafeteria, school-wide, home,
community, and media).
Time. Teachers in the TNDP were
required to teach at least one of the five or more activities offered from
each of the eight (Food & Me) or nine (Food Time or Food
Works) lessons in the module that was appropriate for their grade
level. The average number of activities taught per lesson was three, and
each activity took about 30 minutes of instructional time. The average
lesson time was about 90 minutes (but would have been longer if teachers
had used all of the activities). The total teaching time for all lessons
in a classroom module was about 12 hours. Time to plan the lesson
activities was almost half of the total teaching time (about 5½ hours).
Time to plan and teach a lesson increased with the grade level of students
taught - from kindergarten through fifth grade. The yourSELF module
for sixth through eighth grade took an average of eight hours to plan and
teach.
Based on the data from this project, it would take 24 days or five
weeks to offer a nutrition unit if one activity was covered per school
day. One solution to the "time" problem is to integrate the
activities into other subject areas so that no "extra" classroom
time is needed. Some teachers did merge nutrition lessons into health,
reading and science, but many indicated that nutrition was taught as a
stand-alone subject. Some teachers reduced planning time by team teaching
(they taught selected activities or lessons to multiple classes) or by
involving others in the instruction.
Resources. Teachers reported
frequent use of materials that were provided with the classroom modules
such as the Teacher's Guide, posters, and parent reproducibles. Curriculum
components that were not replaceable (student magazines and parent
newsletters) were used less in the second year than the first year, even
though FNS was able to provide replacements. If teachers are expected to
use the materials for more than one year, they need to be able to
replenish their supplies by purchasing replacements, being able to
download masters from a web site, or having copy-ready masters included
with the module/kit. In addition to the materials that were provided as
part of the modules, many teachers used additional materials and supplies
to assist in teaching the lessons. Use of computers/Internet was more
frequent in upper grades; books were used more in lower grades. Food was
the supply used most often for the classroom lessons.
Cost. Across all four modules and all four States, food was the
most frequently used supply. There was much variability across and within
States related to the amount spent on food and other supplies purchased to
teach the lessons (classroom modules were provided at no cost to schools).
Some schools were able to use food purchased with school foodservice funds
or were able to obtain monetary donations from the Parent Teacher
Organization (PTO)/Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or community
organizations to buy food and other supplies. Art supplies were the second
most frequently used supply.
The cost to teach Food & Me lessons ranged from $53 to $171
per classroom in the four TNDP States; Food Time lesson costs ranged from
$18 to $112; Food Works lesson costs ranged from $38 to $71; and
the yourSELF lessons ranged from $34 to $99 per classroom
respectively.
Key Findings -
Non-Classroom Channel Events/Activities (School-Wide, Cafeteria, Home,
Community and Media Channels)
Steps. Steps associated with the
TNDP total school events offered in non-classroom channels (cafeteria,
school-wide, home, community, and media) included planning and conducting
the activities with leadership from a coordinator. The coordinators were
typically foodservice staff, classroom teachers, or school nurses.
Individuals who helped plan and/or conduct events were typically school
foodservice staff or classroom teachers.
Time and Cost. Events/activities
offered in the cafeteria, school-wide, home, community, and media channels
had an average cost of $243 per event for schools in all States and ranged
from $0 to $1,317 per channel event; home and community events had the
highest average cost. In addition to that expense there was also a
"time" cost. A typical event that was offered one time took from
three to seven hours of the coordinator's time to plan and four to five
hours from the helpers. Time to conduct the events was about four hours
for coordinators and five to ten hours for helpers. Generally, more than
one person helped the coordinators with the events, usually a classroom
teacher or school foodservice staff person. Finding the time and money to
offer events in these various channels was not easy for school-based
staff. If schools are to be expected to implement TN activities to reach
students, parents, and others in the cafeteria, school-wide, home,
community, and media channels, funding and technical assistance must be
provided for schools to accomplish comprehensive TN programming.
Resources. Across all channels, the
resources used most often for activities included food, print materials,
posters or banners, and art supplies. Although some items were donated,
most of the supplies were purchased with funding from the TNDP grants to
schools.
Overlap in Channels and with Messages. An
FNS guideline for channel events/activities was that they must communicate
at least one of the four TN messages. Another guideline was to offer
activities not only in the classroom but also in the cafeteria, for the
school as a whole, in the community, for parents (by sending things home
or involving them at school), and by involving the media to promote or
cover TN events.
As project teams developed their TN project plans, it became apparent
that there was overlap across the channels and the messages. School-wide
events were strongly linked with both the cafeteria and the home channel,
and activities offered in the community channel often involved the media.
For example, an event, such as a health fair, often involved all the
channels since it was a school-wide activity that used the cafeteria and
was targeted to parents, students and the community with coverage by the
media. Such an event could convey all four TN messages by offering
demonstrations, information, taste testing and resources to teach students
how to select a variety of foods including lower-fat choices such as
fruits, vegetables and grains. Health fairs could also offer opportunities
for families to be physically active by including dancing, hallway
walking; demonstrating stretching or movement; or offering activities in
the gym or outdoors as part of the fair. As the schools followed the TNDP
grant guidelines for offering comprehensive implementation of TN; they
were able to transform the school environment into one that conveyed the
basic messages about eating healthy and being active. Encouraging schools
to plan fewer events or activities that involve more of the channels,
instead of lots of events offered in singular channels, may be more
consistent with how schools can approach comprehensive implementation
while being less overwhelming.
Project
Coordination and Reporting
Site Coordinators. All
participating schools (school districts in Idaho) were required by their
States to have a minimum of one person designated as site coordinators to
provide leadership for the TNDP at the local level. School foodservice
directors were the most common type of site coordinator but almost 20% of
coordination was accomplished by teachers. Each coordinator was assisted
by a school-based team with typical members being (in order of frequency):
school foodservice staff, classroom teachers, administrators, and physical
education (PE) teachers.
Estimated time spent, per year, by coordinators ranged across States
from 58 to 87 hours during Year 1 of the implementation phase and from 32
to 177 hours in Year 2 of the implementation phase. They worked on:
developing and distributing information about the project, purchasing
materials and supplies, meetings with teachers and foodservice staff, and
talking to administrators about the project. They held an average of four
to eleven meetings in Year 1 of the implementation phase and three to six
meetings in the Year 2 of the implementation phase. At the end of the
two-year implementation phase, site coordinators in each State were asked
to provide input about "what it takes" to plan and implement
nutrition education and nutrition-related messages throughout the school
and community environment. The key findings and lessons learned from their
input are summarized here:
Commitment
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Effective implementation of TN requires the commitment, leadership
ability, time and energy of TN coordinators/co-coordinators. The
leader guided the team/group and kept the momentum going.
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As TNDP schools discovered, finding time for the team to meet on a
regular basis is challenging. Preparing a written plan was found to be
more important than frequent meetings for carrying out events and
activities. The TNDP schools recommended keeping the plan do-able, not
taking on too many activities at once and incorporating TN events and
activities into existing programs whenever possible.
Funding and Resources
Training and Administrative Support
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Administrative support is crucial if comprehensive nutrition
education is offered.
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State agencies' leadership for local TN schools is important to
comprehensive TN implementation. TNDP State agencies provided school
leaders with encouragement, continual updates about TN, served as a
clearinghouse for local TN schools' ideas and best practices in
nutrition education and physical activity.
Role of School Foodservice Staff.
More school foodservice staff were site coordinators, members of the
school-based project teams, and coordinated and/or helped with the channel
events/activities than any other group. Clearly, foodservice staff was
involved in a leadership role for this project by, focusing on
comprehensive implementation of TN throughout the school, not just in the
cafeteria. At the end-of-project interviews, site coordinators indicated
the importance of buy-in from the foodservice department (and also
administrators) for the success of such a project. It is interesting to
note that involvement of classroom teachers in the foodservice program
increased from 43% (of foodservice staff involving classroom teachers)
during the year prior to implementation to 92% during the first year of
implementation. Other groups also increased their involvement in the
foodservice program. Involvement of community partners increased from 27%
to 70% and involvement of parents increased from 38% to 68%.
Benefits. Outcome evaluation was
not a component of the TNDP. However, on an End-of-Project Questionnaire,
States asked site coordinators to share information about the benefits
associated with comprehensive implementation of TN for these various
groups.
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Project Coordinators benefited by feeling that they made a
difference at the school and student levels - from being able to
provide students with new opportunities and information and seeing
students choose nutritious foods, from participating in a national
project that could help other schools and States, and from the grant
management experience and interaction with others.
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Teachers benefited from the resources/materials received and
the chance to enhance and align the curriculum to include nutrition
education/concepts.
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Foodservice Staff benefited by being included as active
members of the school team, by improving their relationship with
teachers, and by receiving recognition for their role in school
nutrition education and programming.
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Schools benefited from the funding received to pay for
events/activities, from collaboration and communication (team effort)
among staff, from increased parent and community involvement, and from
good public relations that resulted from school involvement in a
project targeting student health.
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Students benefited from increased knowledge and awareness
about nutrition and physical activity, from the opportunity to try new
foods and engage in fun learning activities about nutrition and from
learning about healthy habits from their classroom teachers, their
fellow students, and other role models inside and outside of the
school.
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Parents benefited from tasting healthy foods when attending
school functions, from obtaining ideas for snacks and meals, from
receiving information to help their children make better choices for
good health, and by gaining a better understanding of nutrition and
TN.
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Communities benefited by connecting with school staff, from
being part of a comprehensive health project and from the nutrition
information they received.
Routine Reporting. Schools outside
of the TNDP provided feedback about the format and content of a proposed
TN Reporting System for possible national use with all enrolled TN schools
in all States. The pilot test of the Reporting System indicated that it
was currently not practical for FNS to go forward with a nationwide
routine TN Reporting System.
Contribution of State Project Staff.
A time or resource cost that was not tracked in the TNDP but that was
important to the success of comprehensive implementation was the time
commitment of the State-level staff that coordinated this grant project.
Hundreds, or possibly thousands or hours, were needed to support
school-based staff through the planning phase as well as to train
teachers, make site visits involving travel throughout the States,
maintain ongoing communication, and manage the administrative aspects of
the project, such as budget and reimbursement. The total number of hours
was not reported but the involvement of State staff was crucial in
coordinating comprehensive TN efforts in schools in their State. It is
clear that just providing funding to schools is not enough. They need
encouragement, support, and resources from State staff to accomplish and
sustain nutrition education and positive changes in school environments.
Recommendations
The results of the TNDP indicated that it was possible to implement TN
throughout schools and involve parents, community members, and the media.
It took time (to plan, gather resources, and teach lessons or conduct
events), involved a committed team (that had the support of the principal
and school foodservice staff), and required resources (particularly
classroom lessons, food, printed materials, and art supplies) for events
in all channels. The following is a list of recommendations, generated
through this project, which may assist others in comprehensively
implementing TN:
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Successful implementation requires a committed, energetic, and
enthusiastic leader. Given the potential times demands of implementing
TN, sharing of leadership responsibilities between two individuals
should be considered.
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Enough people should be involved so that turnover doesn't affect
continuity and momentum. Ideally, a team that involves teachers,
foodservice staff, administrators, parents, students, and community
members should be formed.
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Money/funding is needed for resources, release time, and food. These
can be funded through TN mini grants from the State agency. Food costs
may be absorbed or offset by support from the school foodservice
department.
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Support for nutrition training for teachers and foodservice staff by
school administrators and release of staff time to plan and conduct TN
events is crucial. The training needs to be on-going.
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Cooperation of school foodservice staff is integral to implementing
and sustaining TN in schools.
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State agency support is an important component of successful TN
implementation. The State agency can provide training and technical
assistance to districts and schools, encouragement to school leaders,
updates about TN, assistance with the media to promote TN and healthy
school environments, and information linking nutrition lessons and
State learning standards and benchmarks.
Last modified: 12/04/2008
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